Saturday, March 18, 2006

Avoiding the “Two Thieves” part 1

Here is some application of the metaphor of the two thieves from the Web site of Sanctuary Church in Seattle (reformatted slightly):

Multi-culturalism:The conservative approach is to idolize some cultures.The liberal approach is to relativize all cultures.

The gospel of grace leads us to be:somewhat critical of all cultures,morally superior to no individual,hopeful about any individual, andrespectful and courteous to each individual.

The poor:The conservative elites tend to scorn the poor as failures and weaklings.The liberal elites tend to scorn the religion of the poor and see them as helpless victims needing their expertise.

The gospel of grace leads us to be:humble, without moral superiority knowing we were saved by grace,gracious, remembering our former deserved spiritual poverty, andrespectful of believing poor Christians as brothers and sisters from whom to learn.

The gospel leads us to say: "Something in my life has become more important than God, a pseudo-savior, a form of works-righteousness.” The gospel leads us to repentance, but not to merely setting our will against superficialities.